Turn Back
by Laughing.Thalia
Summary: Dino contemplates life as his car flips during The De Leon race. -OR- His thoughts when Tobey decides to Turn Back for him.


_"When you're hanging upside down tomorrow, I'm not coming back for you."_

Those words echoed in his mind as he felt his black Elemento start to flip.

 _"I'm not coming back for you."_

Dino's eyes widened. This was karma. After all those years of lying, to the police, to his fiancé- ex-fiancé to himself. Karma was finally coming back to bite him in the ass.

 _"You didn't go back for him"_ that's what he had been mad about. Not about the 2 years he spent in prison, or his father's shop shutting down, no, Tobey was only angry because he hadn't gone back for Pete. Instead, Dino had continued past the finish line; won the race, not that it mattered any more; taken the money and lied to everyone that it had even taken place. Lied about ever having been there, lied about the existence of a third car, lied that he was in possession of said third car, he even lied to the girl he _loved_ that he had nothing to do with her brother's death. If he could lie to her so easily, for so long then maybe he never really loved her at all.

He felt his head hit something hard and smooth, the window, and it was only then he realised he was still in his car and he was still crashing, flying awfully close to the edge of a grassy bank.

In the distance he saw a red car stop. He saw the red car that was tainted red with the blood of a kid and paint chipped, washed away by the tears of that kid's friends, stop. And it was only then he realised that the car had stopped and it had stopped because he had crashed.

And then it did something he had never thought anyone driving that red Koenigsegg Agera would do (mainly because he thought only he would drive that car), it turned back. It came back, and it came back for _him_. The car was by his side in what felt like an instant and Dino realised he must have blacked out for a second. The thing that brought him back to the land of the living was the screech of rubber on tarmac as the Keonigsegg came to an abrupt stop in the street.

He didn't remember when exactly his car stopped crashing, he didn't remember that last spin that had him suddenly jolting to a standstill in his seat.

He didn't quite remember the tendrils of smoke and gasoline clawing it's way into his mouth, his nose; filling his lungs; making it impossible to breath.

But he did remember calloused hands opening the car door, roughly unbuckling his seatbelt, hurriedly pulling him from the car. He remembered the resulting explosion, an explosion that would have probably killed him had it not been for Tobey.

And when Tobey asked "Are you okay?" Dino wanted to verbalise the unspoken _"Thank you"_ to the street racer, he wanted to scream the never before said _"sorry"_ at the universe, he wanted to say anything that painted him as anything other than a jerk but instead all said was "Yeah, I'm fine."

And when Tobey didn't say anything, only looked at him a little longer, a little harder, he found himself unable to meet his eyes, wanting to avoid the man's scrutiny. Dino was ashamed, Tobey had always been the better racer, the better man, and now here he was saving his arch nemesis when Dino hadn't even turned back for his own fiancés brother. "I'm fine!" He repeated in a harsh tone, much more harsh then he had been aiming for.

"Good." And for a second Dino thought that Tobey was just honestly glad to see that Dino was okay, "This is for Pete." The punch that followed whilst wasn't expected, wasn't a complete surprise either. He deserved that. He deserved _more_ than that, much more.

He could hear the sirens drawing closer, he saw the lines in Tobey's face crease up in panic, the way he stood up and legged it to the car, _his_ car, the car he had sworn up and down didn't exist.

The car was off like a shot. Dino looked to the skies as about a dozen police cars whizzed by at a much slower speed than Tobey had been going, one car slowed down and pulled up next to him.

Of course. He had almost forgotten. Not only had he committed obstruction of justice and perjury, but he was also a _murderer_ , or at the very least a man-slaughterer.

Dino closed his eyes. "I guess this is what I deserve. I've been dodging it long enough."

He wondered, as the police dragged him to his feet and cuffed him, if it made Tobey feel better that the man he had set out to beat, the man he had been trying to convince everyone was evil, was a complete ass hole. If he had had some redeemable features, would Tobey have been more angry? Less angry? If he had apologised? If he had owned up to it and gone to jail as well? If he had just turned back?


End file.
